A couple of days ago, I started a topic that is now in it’s third post, Developing a Strategy for SEO. I covered what a strategy is, and what it is not. The second installment was about the building blocks of any SEO campaign and how to analyze your competition.
Today, we will discuss how to implement our strategy to surpass the competition.
We know that only time can help us address the third major component of SEO, so this one we cannot improve through our strategy.
However, the other two, Link Popularity and Content will be the focus of our strategy.
First, based upon our analysis of our competitors, what is the vertical standards for building links? Do they utilize link exchange, build links in social sites and what directories do they have links from? What hypertext is used in their links?
Using tools from Google, MSN, Yahoo and Ask we can see where they get their links from. Keeping in mind that every link to a website, even when they are provided by Google, MSN, Yahoo or Ask, does not mean that it is a valuable link. My opinion, check Yahoo for links to these domains, they tend to provide more raw data than either Google or MSN.
Second, we will analyze the content on the top performing websites. How often do they update their content and what is the structure of their content. Is the majority of their content given on their index, in the middle of their website or buried deep in the website? What is the keyword density that they are using?
When we know the answers to the above questions in both the inbound links and content, we can develop a strategy to imitate the top ranking organic sites.
Just as I have posted about before, the first step to improving your ranking is to imitate the top performing websites, then we have to innovate. Using techniques like link baiting, RSS/XML feeds, adding user input to provide a better experience, whatever you can see what the top performers are not using can be exploited to naturally move to the top of the pile. My suggestion, optimize your navigation, so it is easy to provide what your users are looking for.
Just like normal business, it is important to find out the weaknesses of your competition, improve the products or services they are offering or become the low price leader in your vertical.
The strategy is only the first step, even though researching your competition was a difficult task, you know more about them and that is the first step to replace them in the organic results. The tough part has now begun, finding out more about yourself and your website and adhering to the strategy you have devised. It doesn’t happen overnight, not only the building of the site, but also the ranking changes that you are seeking.
Do you have any input or tips to help others improve their rankings naturally? Let me know.
Related Posts >>
- Developing a Strategy for SEO
- Developing a Strategy for SEO part 2
- Keywords – What’s Brand Got To Do With It?
- Supplemental Results
- How to Win Links and Influence Webmasters
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Thanks for sharing this series. I think it would be even more valuable for me if you were to use a real world example. Say my friends over at Mychurch.org who I tried to provide some SEO advice. Would love to see how an expert would do it differently….
Cheers,
Noah
Noah,
Thank you for the compliment. The difference with SEO practices in theory and practice are dramatic. Most of them are directly related to the link building and content practices within the given vertical. Studies show that given a different vertical, like selling DVDs, the keyword density is dramatically different than that of another vertical, like selling light bulbs. I am a professional SEO for a private company and my expertise is in the travel vertical, but this does not mean that basic concepts and tools are not relevant, rather, based upon the environment that a website is contained (it’s vertical) the content and link building are different.
Knowing yourself, your website and each of their capabilities is extremely important, but it is also important to know your competition and the vertical you are in. So, each are important and may be difficult to relate across verticals, but the theory can.
Hey pitfall,
Great article. Natural link building is a popular strategy, and it’s easy to do with all the free tools out there on the internet. Try out SpyderMate. It gives you an idea of where you stack up against the competition, which can be really helpful in aiming for specific keywords.